The paper provides an overview of the treatment of risk in economics as a way to connect the concept of risk, as used by economists, to the concern of other social science disciplines with how the parallel concepts of vulnerability and resilience affect rural and regional development. These latter two terms have become popular in the economic geography, rural sociology, disaster management and regional studies literature, but typically have not been considered in a formal way. The paper provides examples from three threads of economics literature – household studies of vulnerability, macroeconomic studies of vulnerability and growth, and the literature on small states, volatility and economic growth, to suggest how standard economic models of risk management can be applied to rural development problems in OECD countries. Applying these concepts may lead to some alternative conclusions about the desirability of common rural development strategies, such as, diversification forming clusters or expanding local supply chains.